


Frayed Ends

by Kare



Category: Captain America (Movies), Captain America - All Media Types, Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-05-30
Updated: 2017-05-30
Packaged: 2018-11-06 19:49:02
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 567
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11043111
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kare/pseuds/Kare





	Frayed Ends

It has become her job to seek him out.

 

I know it once was mine, but I am content to let her get there first.

 

It’s not as if Steve and his preference for balconies are hard to miss.

 

I might say something if it wasn’t for his inability to get sick any longer.

 

Then again, maybe I would not.

 

For he always acts so surprised when she seeks him out, even when she had done it unfailingly for eight days in a row.

 

And it’s irritating.

 

They have entire conversations out there without a single word.

 

I am not sure if I am more impressed with her to bother or with him to get along with a woman for a change.

 

And I know they don’t need me.

 

Not the way I need them.

 

I’d say it’s funny how things change, except it really isn’t.

 

* * *

 

 

She still hopes, foolish as it may seem.

 

Of course Steve figured out just how Nat had came to know his Bucky.

 

But one can’t change the past, no matter how much it threatens to trample all over your future.

 

She is still trying to ignore the calculating look in Bruce eyes.

 

The way he tries to gauge whether or not he could take James out. In theory… and all.

 

Just for science.

 

Never for his temper…

 

As if she doesn’t see through it.

 

As if Barnes doesn’t.

 

But she can deal with Bruce.

 

She knows how to play his temper.

 

Somehow dealing with Steve is more important.

 

She knows he already settled on an answer.

 

It will be something sickenly Steve.

 

_I am glad he did not have to go through this alone._

 

It is not all he wants to say on the matter.

 

But probably all he will.

 

And she needs to hear it.

 

To hear it from him.

 

Because a part of her hopes that she has not broken a human being… just for a change.

 

* * *

 

 

Sending Natasha is tactically sound.

 

He can't help but notice.

 

Which is his entire life in a nutshell.

 

Steve never did learn to trust that just maybe this was about him.

 

He had lost count how often people approached him because they had needed medical help from his mother, help with some homework, a portrait or anything else... just to go back to ignoring him not even half a week later.

 

Turning into Captain America had not helped with that matter.

 

Which might count as the understatement of the year.

 

The upside of having Nat around is that he never needed to say this out loud.

 

Putting words to it would have made things even worse.

 

For the only exception to that, the only person who had ever approached Steve for _Steve_ , had always been Bucky.

 

And no matter how much the others insisted... how much they tried to rile him up with "Bucky this..." or "Bucky that..."

 

He had not gotten Bucky back.

 

Bucky stopped running.

 

They share a building.

 

And if Steve feels masochistic enough to join the rest in their quest for finding Nemo, they could have movie nights and shared food.

 

Maybe even jokes.

 

Or old memories.

 

As long as Steve hangs around.

 

As long as he is the one to make the first move.

 

But Bucky never seeks him out anymore.

 

And Steve could have dealt with anything else.

 

But he finds he can't cope without that.


End file.
